Classifying Mai
by Vannen Shantel
Summary: Naru contemplates how he classisfies Mai in his life. Reference to his system of classifying people as pumpkins. In honor of the first day of Autumn. Hint of Mairu


Oliver Davis stared at the chaos going on in the lobby of his office, once again wondering when his office became a café. "If you all have nothing better to do, go home," he said before retreating to his office. The headache he'd been nursing all day was not going away. The noise wasn't helping. He sat at his desk and leaned his head into his hands, rubbing his temples, trying to alleviate some pressure.

Why were so many people _always_ there? What on earth had shifted in his mind to allow such an influx of pumpkin people into his life? He was just making his life more complicated by classifying the SPR irregulars as such. Still, he couldn't help but wonder why he allowed it in the first place.

It took him a few more moments to realize that things had quieted in the front room. When he did, he sighed in relief and picked up the pen he'd been using and went back to work on the latest chapter of his thesis.

A gentle knock on his door interrupted his train of thought just as he was once again starting to be able to focus on his work, all memory of the pumpkin people pushed out of his mind until they returned another day when he'd be required to remember them and their uses. He glared over his shoulder at the door. He just wanted to work but he knew better than to ignore it. The only two people in the office other than himself could be irritatingly persistent when they wanted his attention.

"Come in," he said, his eyes returning to the page in front of him.

"Naru?"

He looked up from the paper at his assistant. "What Mai?" he asked.

She scowled at his abrupt tone for a moment before her expression softened. "I brought tea," she said. "You seemed upset so I thought it might help." She set the cup on his desk within easy reach but out of the way of being bumped or knocked over. "Let me know if you need anything else," she said, touching his arm briefly before leaving again, not waiting for the thank you he never gave.

Taniyama Mai, Naru realized as he picked up his tea and took a tentative sip, was the reason and catalyst of all the pumpkin people in his life these days. He took a moment to relax and enjoy her tea, thinking over this realization as he did.

Mai should have just been a regular pumpkin in his life, just like the nameless and faceless classmates she'd been with the day he'd met her. He should have forgotten about her the moment her usefulness disappeared but her memory persisted. She was just a school girl; part of a case he'd been working.

But then she'd broken the camera and Lin had been injured saving her. She'd become a necessity. He'd manipulated her into working for him for the rest of the case. Still, she should have stayed a pumpkin but he slowly found himself thinking of her as a not pumpkin. Was she a pumpkin person or a weak? He'd thought weak for a while but then he'd realized it was more than that. She didn't just need saving. She was curious and wanted to learn about his business. And for some reason, he wasn't quite so irritated by her questions

Once the case was over and he'd returned to his office, he'd expected her to be forgotten. And he had forgotten her. That is, until Lin had asked how to get her check to her. Oliver had called the school, learned she was an orphan, and, on a rare whim, he offered her a job. She may have been a weak to start, but no longer. She became a pumpkin person. He'd answer her when she asked questions. The others he'd worked with on that case at Mai's school soon became pumpkin people in his mind as well, resurfacing in his thoughts when he needed them. He wondered if it was because of his continued association with the pumpkin person Mai.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Oliver found himself thinking of Mai when she wasn't in his immediate vicinity. What more, any time she touched him (which was becoming more and more frequent much to his discomfort), he didn't find the need to slap her hand away as he would with pumpkin people.

She was no longer in any of his pumpkin categories.

Gene called people like this his "inner group."

People in this group were those that had major influences on him such as the late Davis twin himself, their adoptive parents, Dr Hinnells, Jean Vianney, Madoka, and Lin. For years, the unclassified had never changed. But somehow, inexplicably, Mai had found her way into this group.

He stared at his sleeve where she'd briefly touched him. He hated physical affection, even from Gene and his parents. Honestly, he hated it from Mai as well.

But for some reason he couldn't explain, he hated it a little less from her.

The girl that should be a pumpkin person at most but wasn't.

He thought for a moment, wondering why she should be part of the unclassified. He found himself picturing her smile, her flushed face as she berated him for being callous to a pumpkin, her pout from his teasing, her laugh, her quiet composure the rare times he would sneak out of his office to watch her brew his tea, her sleeping face, her strength as she shouted the nine words to defend someone, her concentration as she worked on a school assignment.

No, he thought, it can't be _that_.

Still, as he sipped her tea, he found his denial was weaker than ever before.

No, Mai was most definitely _not_ a pumpkin.


End file.
